The invention relates to a television camera having a plurality of pickup elements positioned relative to a pickup lens by means of a holder which incorporates a color splitting prism system. A front face of the prism system is attached to a reference face of the holder. The prism system is composed of a plurality of prisms which are attached to one another along optically flat prism faces. Optically flat prism faces also form the front face and the end faces for the prism system. Light coming from the pickup lens can enter the prism system via the front face and light intended for the pick-up elements can leave the prism system via the end faces.
British patent specification No. 1,544,120 discloses a television camera of the type described above, wherein the holder is provided with spaces in which the pickup lens and the pick-up tubes are to be mounted and which are rigidly disposed with respect to one another. The color splitting prism system is mounted in a separate space in the holder against the reference face. A flange, which is connected to a bush accommodating a pickup lens, is clamped between the front face of the prism system and the abutment face of the holder.
To ensure proper operation of a television camera of the type described above, the pickup lens, the color splitting prism system and the pickup elements must be positioned very accurately relative to each other. A light beam originating from an object to be recorded, which emerges from the pickup lens along the optical axis thereof, is split by the prism system into a plurality of light beams directed towards the pickup tubes. The object to be recorded must form a sharp picture on the target plate of each pickup tube. For that purpose, the color splitting prism system must be mounted in the known camera, in which the pick-up lens and the pickup tubes are mounted in spaces which have been rigidly arranged relative to one another, with a high degree of accuracy in the holder against the abutment face.